


but deep in my heart there's a glow

by chelseababylove



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal, mlsecretsanta2k19
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22080652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseababylove/pseuds/chelseababylove
Summary: Marinette wants to tell Adrien she knows who he is, among other things. Unfortunately, the world seems to be conspiring against her.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 20
Kudos: 439





	but deep in my heart there's a glow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PerditaAlottachocolate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerditaAlottachocolate/gifts).



> My submission for mlsecretsanta! I am late, as always. What do you expect from me?

Everything needs to be perfect.

Marinette fluffs the throw pillows one last time and looks around in mild panic. Adrien should be here any minute and she will have about an hour and a half to tell him. The letter she wrote sits on her desk upstairs, a backup plan for when her tongue inevitably betrays her and she can’t get her words out. 

Scurrying over to the kitchen, Marinette quickly makes sure all the ingredients are out and accounted for. The recipe sits nearly on the corner of the counter for Adrien’s benefit—she can these cookies in her sleep.

“Everything will be fine, Marinette,” Tikki says, popping her head out of Marinette’s blazer.

“Fine isn’t good enough!” Marinette exclaims. 

“You’re being overdramatic again. I thought we worked on this.”

“I know, you’re right. It’s just.. Chat Noir.”

“He’s going to be happy. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how cozy you and Adrien have become lately.”

Marinette can feel a blush creeping up on her as she thinks back to the past few weeks with Adrien. Sure, they’ve become great friends since she got over her awkwardness around him but he’s been even friendlier lately. Flirtier. At first, she thought she was simply noticing Chat-things about Adrien but he’s definitely been taking more of an interest in her. 

Before she can respond, Marinette hears footsteps. “Hide Tikki,” she says as she pushes the small kwami back into hiding. 

The doorbell rings and Marinette sprints to open it up. There, in all his glory, is Adrien Agreste, beaming down at her. He’s wearing a black suit with an emerald green dress shirt, his hair slicked back. It’s a good look on him. 

“Hey Marinette!”

“Hi!” Marinette stands there, smiling up at him before she collects herself and steps aside. “Uh, come on in.”

“Thanks again for letting me do this.”

“It’s no problem! You know I love you!” It isn’t until Adrien’s face starts turning pink that Marinette realizes what she said. “I mean baking! I love baking with you.”

Head hung in shame, Marinette leads Adrien to the kitchen so they can get started. She wants to tell him while the cookies bake in the oven. Since they’re making cookie bars, they should have about half an hour to talk. “Here,” she says, thrusting a blue apron into Adrien’s arms. “You should wear this to protect your suit.”

“Right,” he says, gripping the apron. “It’s important to use protection.”

Marinette doesn’t know if he means that the way she takes it. To be honest, she doesn’t want to know what he means. All she knows is that her face is going to melt off her and she won’t live to tell him she knows. 

“I—um— I’ll be right back!”

She leaves a blushing Adrien in the kitchen while she tries to calm down in the bathroom. 

“I can’t do this, Tikki,” she whispers, grasping the sink with both hands. Tikki once again pops her head out to comfort the shaking girl. “I thought I could but I was wrong.”

“You’ll be okay, Marinette. You owe it to Adrien to at least tell him you know his secret.”

“No, I want to tell him everything.”

“Then tell him. It’ll all work out, I promise.”

“What if I mess it up?”

“You have that letter upstairs, remember?”

“Right.” Marinette takes a deep breath and stares at herself in the mirror. “Right. I can do this. I can do anything.” She splashes her face with some water, hoping it’ll cool her down, before heading out to face Adrien again. 

“Sorry about that,” she says, slipping into the kitchen and tying an apron around her own clothes. She’s not dressed for the party yet, but she’d rather not get food all over her clothes regardless. 

“It’s okay.” Adrien rubs the back of his neck—an endearing trait he shows as both Adrien and Chat Noir. “Should we get started?”

“Yes! Good idea!”

They fall into a rhythm, which calms Marinette’s nerves loads. Baking is easy and familiar to her, and she’s baked with Adrien tons of times by now. It requires just the right amount of brain-power to distract her from her thoughts but not so much that it becomes stressful in its own right. 

All too soon, the cookies are in the oven and Adrien is watching her carefully. She assumes he noticed they didn’t chat as much during the baking process as they normally do but he’ll understand soon enough why she’s being weird. 

Adrien clears his throat. “Is that what you’re wearing to Alix’s party?”

Marinette looks down at her egg-and-flour-covered apron and hastily removes it from her person. She’s going to have to chuck it in the laundry. “No, I just didn’t want to risk getting my outfit dirty. I’m too clumsy to trust myself with that.”

Adrien chuckles as he removes his apron. His is clean enough that he can hang it back up with the other aprons. “Can’t argue with that logic. Do you want to get ready while we wait for the cookies? I can just watch TV down here.”

“Oh, no it’s fine. I’ll just get ready while they cool. I had something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Will you have enough time? I figured we would book it as soon as we cut them.”

Marinette tilts her head in confusion. “They won’t take that long to cook.”

“I thought we were getting there for 8?”

Marinette glances at the clock and jumps. She didn’t realize how late it had gotten. “I need to get ready!”

She rushes out of the kitchen, catches herself, and turns back around. “The remote’s on the side table. Do whatever you want. I’ll be back soon!”

Several trips, stumbles, and an inordinate amount of makeup remover later, Marinette looks respectable enough for Alix’s New Year’s party. She originally planned on wearing a sparkly dress to ring in the new year but ultimately decided to go for a red cocktail dress instead. If she’s going to reveal herself to the love of her life, she might as well go all out for it. 

She hesitates before grabbing the letter and shoving it into the right pocket of her jacket. They still have time to talk on the walk over so she hasn’t lost all hope. Adrien will know everything before midnight, Marinette is determined. 

When she gets back downstairs, she’s surprised to see Adrien playing video games with her father. 

“Hi Papa,” she says slowly. If she knew he was going to be there, she would have gotten ready even faster—leaving Adrien alone too long with her parents is never a good idea.

“Hi cupcake.”

“The cookies are cooling in the freezer, Mari,” Adrien says without looking away from the screen. By the looks of it, Adrien and her father are neck and neck. 

“Thanks, Adrien. Sorry for ditching you so suddenly.” She leans against the doorway, watching the two characters on screen fight. 

“It’s okay, your dad came up about 10 minutes after you left so I didn’t have much time… alone.” Adrien’s character gets slammed and her dad leaps up in victory. Confused, Marinette looks over to what distracted Adrien, only to find him gaping at her. 

“Wow, Marinette. You look great!”

“Thank you,” Marinette says, rubbing her wrist in embarrassment. 

“I should get back to your mother. I left her all alone with the dishes. Have fun tonight, you two.”

“Goodnight Papa! Happy New Year!” She kisses his cheek as he passes by and he winks at her, as though she needs more embarrassment in her life right now. 

“Um, you want to get those cookies ready and then head out?” Marinette asks.

\--

The walk to Alix’s isn’t far, which is why they choose to enjoy the brisk night. With the soft cushion of snow covering the ground and the twinkling lights of the city, Marinette can’t help but think of how romantic this walk could be. Unfortunately, the jacket Marinette chose to wear was more for fashion than function and she is growing colder and colder every second that passes. 

“Do you want to wear my jacket?” Adrien asks. 

“N-no I’m f-fine.” Marinette curses her stupidity. It’s too cold for her to hold a proper conversation. She can’t have chattering teeth while she tries to have a serious conversation with the boy. 

“Maybe put your hands in your pockets?” They both smile and nod to the shopkeeper outside his shop, slowly shoveling the snow on the sidewalk. He gives them a big smile and wishes them a happy new year as they pass by. 

“Oh! I have gloves!” She pulls the gloves out of her pockets and puts them on, feeling a bit warmer already. For extra warmth, she does put her hands in her pockets.

“Better?”

“A little. I should know better by now that I need to bundle up more, no matter how much my jacket clashes with my outfit.”

“Here.” Adrien slings his arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer to him. “This should keep you warm.”

Unable to stop herself, Marinette snuggles closer to him, grateful for both his warmth and his touch. 

“Adrien! Marinette!” 

The two pull apart immediately and take a step apart. Lila approaches them with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. 

“Are you on your way to Alix’s?” she asks. “Mind if I join you?”

Marinette and Adrien glance at each other but don’t say anything as Lila nestles herself in between them for the remainder of their walk. 

\--

Marinette gets separated from Adrien nearly the minute they arrive. Which isn’t too surprising but it’s still frustrating. She hasn’t told him yet and it’s slowly driving her crazy. She can’t concentrate on anything, failing to participate in any of the conversations her friends try to start with her. 

“Girl,” Alya says, pulling Marinette to the side. They’re standing by the snacks table, filled with junk food. Marinette is happy to see most of their cookie bars have gone. “What is going on with you tonight? Did you have some of the punch Kim spiked?”

“No,” Marinette says, making a mental note not to have anything but the bottles of water. She needs a clear mind tonight. “Sorry, Alya, my mind’s somewhere else.”

“Clearly. You ok?”

“I’m fine?” she tries to say but it comes out like a question. At Alya’s skeptical look, Marinette straightens her back and tries again. “I’m fine. Just nervous.”

“Nervous about what?”

Marinette shrugs. “A lot of things? This is our last year all together and it’s scary. Not to mention we have university next year, and I’ve been applying for a ton of internships, and I’m planning on confessing to Adrien before midnight and I think I might die.”

Alya squeals and smothers Marinette in a tight hug. “Finally! I am not letting you back down this time. You owe it to yourself. And I am 100% confident that he is going to say yes and you two will be the cutest couple ever, after Nino and me of course.”

“Alya. Can’t. Breathe.”

“Sorry.” Alya lets go of her. “I might have had a bit too much of Kim’s punch. Now come on, we have a sunshine to confess to.”

Alya grabs Marinette’s wrist and drags her around the room. The house is big enough that there are far too many places Adrien could be but the two girls try their best navigating the mess of teenagers while they look for Adrien. 

They finally locate him in the basement, engrossed in a conversation with Max, a very bored-looking Chloé latched onto Adrien’s arm. 

“I’ll handle the extra baggage if she proves to be a problem. You go get your man.” Alya pushes Marinette into the trio, causing her to stumble over her heels. She catches herself on Adrien’s shoulder and shoots a withering glare at Alya. 

“Sorry,” she says, straightening up and putting some distance between them. 

“Adrien,” Alya says, butting in, “Marinette needs to talk to you. Privately.”

Chloé, Adrien, and Max all look to Marinettte for confirmation.

“It’s not that important, we can talk later.”

“Nope, it’s very important. So you should probably go somewhere alone.”

Adrien shrugs Chloé off his arm, who surprisingly doesn’t put up a fuss. “Sure. Would you want to get our jackets and go outside for a bit, Mari?”

“That sounds great!”

They rummage through the coat closet until they find theirs and head to the back porch. Marinette is reminded all over again that it’s cold outside and puts her hands in her pockets.

“So, what’d you want to talk to me about?”

“I—well. I’ve been trying to tell you all night, honestly.” Marinette takes a deep breath, watches a small cloud form as she breathes out, and refocuses. 

“You can tell me anything, Mari,” Adrien says, placing a hand on her forearm. “I actually have something I want to tell you, too.”

“Do you want to go first?”

“No, no. I want to know what you wanted to say.”

“Okay. So.” Marinette fiddles with the gloves in her pockets, using them as a pseudo-stress ball. Even though they’re only gloves, it’s nice to have something there to ground her. 

“Would it help if you write it down?”

“I actually wrote a letter for you if I...oh no!” Marinette yanks her gloves out of her pockets, forcing Adrien to let go of her, and pulls the empty pockets inside out. She feels around the rest of the jacket, only feeling Tikki nuzzled safely in the inner pouch she sewed for her. 

“Is everything okay?”

“I lost it. Oh my gosh I’m such an idiot! I lost the letter!”

“You can always re-write it if you need to.”

“You don’t understand! It has our names on it. I—I need to go. Sorry. Happy New Year!”

“Marinette! Wait!”

But she doesn’t listen.

Marinette runs around the house and sprints down the block. Once she’s sure Adrien didn’t follow her, she ducks behind a tree to transform into Ladybug. She can cover more ground that way. Following the path the took, Marinette doesn’t see anything that looks like the letter. She didn’t use last names but it’s still too incriminating. If anyone reads it, she potentially gave away both of their identities. 

She’s passing by the same shopkeeper they saw early when she realizes that was around the place she pulled her gloves out of her pockets. He might have seen her drop the letter!

She makes sure no one is around before dropping the transformation and jogging up to the old man, still shoveling the snow. 

“Good evening, sir!”

“How do you do?”

“Um, I passed by earlier today, I was with a boy, and I think I dropped something. You didn’t happen to see it and pick it up did you?”

The man stops his shoveling. “No, miss.” Marinette deflates. “But I saw you drop it. Your friend picked it up.”

“My friend? Adrien?”

“No, the girl who caught up with you. I assumed she returned it to you.”

Marinette feels her entire body grow cold, and this time, it has nothing to do with the temperature. “Lila picked up the letter?”

“I guess, if that girl with you is named Lila.”

“Okay. Thank you very much sir. Have a good night and happy new year.”

Marinette calmly walks away. She’s pretty sure her spirit has left her body. There is no possible way Lila Rossi has a letter where she admits that she’s Ladybug, knows he’s Chat Noir, and she’s desperately in love with him. The man has to be mistaken. 

Somehow, Marinette makes it back to the party. She has no idea how long it took her. She has no idea how she got there. All she knows is Lila has her letter. Lila might have already read the letter. Lila might have the most powerful information in the world. 

And Marinette practically handed it to her. 

“You’re back!” 

Marinette startles and looks wide-eyed at Adrien Agreste. She might have doomed him. 

“Did you find the letter?”

She shakes her head and crumbles to the floor in tears. “I’m so sorry Adrien. I ruined everything.”

“Hey it’s okay.” His arms are strong and sturdy around her. He starts rubbing her arms and she shudders. She wants nothing more than to indulge in his embrace but she doesn’t deserve it. 

“It’s not okay. Lila has the letter.” 

His soothing rubs stop immediately. “So we get it back.”

“She might have read it already.”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?”

“Adrien,” she says. “I don’t think I could have written a worse letter if I tried.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.” He removes his arms from her and stands up, reaching out his hand. Marinette looks up at his gentle smile and lets herself rely on her partner once more. When he pulls her up, she winds up closer to him than expected so she winds her arms around him. 

“Thank you,” she breathes. “I always feel better when you’re here.”

“Me too.” He quickly returns the hug before they split up to search for Lila. 

Even with the music blasting, Marinette can hear the blood rushing through her head. Her head is ready to beat out of her chest and her hands will not stop shaking. Time seems to contradict itself. She can’t find Lila soon enough yet every step she takes feels too soon. And then there she is, her hideous fake laugh louder than the rest. 

“Lila,” Marinette says, barging into the conversation without any care. “I heard you picked up something I dropped before. Do you think we could talk?”

“That’s right,” Lila says to her crowd. “Little Marinette here is so clumsy that she dropped her love letter for Adrien Agreste. Poor girl can never seem to confess.”

Marinette looks at Lila, startled. Yes, there was definitely a love confession in there but Marinette is pretty sure Lila would be acting differently if she read the other content of the letter. 

“You didn’t read it?”

“Not yet, I’ve been too busy mingling. I don’t want anyone to feel like I’m neglecting them.”

Glad that they actually have an audience, Marinette asks, “Can I have it back then?”

Lila narrows her eyes. Marinette tries not to appear too smug but she knows she has her cornered. Lila would look bad if she refuses to give back the letter. 

“I don’t have it on me, I must have left it in my jacket. I’ll give it to you later.”

“Not to worry, I can get it myself,” Marinette says, already removing herself from the circle.

“You don’t know which is mine and you wouldn’t want to go through every jacket, that’s just rude. I can get it for you later.”

“Sure, thanks Lila.” Marinette turns away, heading straight to the coat closet. 

Before she can get there, she runs into Adrien again. “She hasn’t read it yet!” she exclaims.

“I know I have it!”

“You have it? How?”

Adrien waves the envelope over her head. “I couldn’t find Lila so I figured I would check to see if she put it in her jacket and, well, she did.”

Marinette jumps to reach the letter and kisses it. “You have no idea how relieved I am.”

“I’m glad everything worked out. Uh, but you still never told me what you’ve been wanting to say.”

A loud “FIVE MINUTES!” interrupts them and Marinette watches in amusement as a herd of people rush over to the living room so they can watch the television. 

“Come with me,” Marinette says, gently taking his hand to pull Adrien outside once again. She waits until they’re both sitting on the porch chairs before starting. 

“I think it’s really important that you know so I think it’d be best if you just read this.” She hands Adrien the letter she wrote and looks away. She wants him to know but doesn’t think she can handle looking at his face while he reads it.

“I have a letter for you too. Maybe we can read ours at the same time?”

Marinette looks at the envelope he’s holding for her, her eyes unable to look away from the little heart over the i in her name. 

“Marinette?”

“Right. Yes. Okay. Same time.” They nod at each other before carefully opening their letters.

_My Dearest Marinette,  
First, I’d like to say that I found out by accident. I want you to remember that when you read the next part. I know you’re Ladybug. Before you panic too much, I saw you detransform because you went to the spot I was going to use. I’m trying to say I’m Chat Noir. This is my 14th attempt to write this and I’m running out of time. Sorry.  
Also, you need to know that I could not have asked for a better partner. You mean the world to me, both as Ladybug and Marinette, and I couldn’t be happier to find out you’re the same person. I know you didn’t want us to know but I couldn’t live with the guilt of knowing. I hope you’ll forgive me.  
All the love in the world,  
Adrien_

Marinette looks up and is surprised to see Adrien in tears. “Adrien?”

He springs on her, engulfing her in the warmest hug. “I love you so much Marinette.”

“I love you too,” she says, melting into him. She can vaguely hear the party guests chanting but she doesn’t pay it any mind.

“Yeah, you mentioned that a few times.”

“Shut up. My letter was better than yours.”

“Your letter was so much better than mine. I should have this framed.”

“Please don’t. We don’t need anyone else finding out.”

“Oh my gosh,” Adrien says, pulling away slightly but leaving his arms loosely around her. “Lila almost read this.”

“I am aware, yes.”

“I can’t believe _Ladybug_ almost let Lila find out our identities.”

“Can you shut up and just kiss me already?”

So he does.


End file.
